Latula's
by formam
Summary: A Human!Stuck AU where Karkat works at Latula's comic book shop. There he meets Terezi, and together they delve into the Sburb Trading card game and face the challenges of High School.


**[I'm sorry if characters in this are OOC, especially Karkat. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Human!Stuck] **

I work at a comic book shop. This may sound interesting, but in its reality boring as shit. I took this job solely for economic reasons, not because I'm interested in comics or any dorky shit like that. The sign out front declares the stores name to be "Latula's Adventure Shop", but everyone just calls it Latula's. Truth be told, the only reason I got this job is that I know Latula herself. She's one of my annoying ass cousin Kankri's friends; she hired me on stating that me working at the store would be "Totally Rad" whatever the fuck that means.

Today is a pretty mellow day, at least compared to tournament days. Every Sunday every single fucking nerd, geek, and dork floods into the store to play the 'Sburb Trading Card Game ©'. You play as a kid sent on a treacherous adventure by a shady video game. The gameplay involves "trading, materializing random items and wreaking all sorts of havoc". At least that's what is says on the box. That brings me to the present moment, a peaceful Saturday in the middle of July. Latula and Tavros are behind the counter reading the latest issue of "The Midnight Crew". Meanwhile, I'm doing inventory and questioning the reasoning behind keeping 3 fucking hundred copies of "The Incomplete Compendium of Bard Quest" in the closet.

As I shove the two-hundred-eighty-fourth copy of Bard Quest into a trashy cardboard box the door creaks open. The comic store is a renovated Victorian home, so everything creaks and crackles; it's annoying as fuck. I hear Latula's muffled voice shout "Hey Sis!" and then a creek, and then a crash.

I rush into the lobby. There's a girl clothed in a black t-shirt and red skinny jeans lying face-first in the pile of cards that took me 3 months to organize. Three. Fucking. Months. The cards were far from organized now that she had crushed and bent most of them with her mass.

For.

Fucks.

Sake.

A veil of rage falls over me. I had just finished organizing those cards after months of work. For fucks sake, why can't this girl watch her fucking step before ruining all that effort? The floor creaks loudly as I stomp my way over to the mess and take a deep breath. Tavros and Latula flinch, expecting the bellowing soon to follow.

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED! I JUST FINISHED ORGANIZING THOSE FUCKING CARDS 2 FUCKING HOURS AGO. CAN'T I GET SOME TIME TO FUCKING APPRECIATE MY HARD WORK BEFORE YOU CRUSH THE ENTIRE FUCKING PILE."

Latula jumps when my rage escapes my lips. Tavros falls flat over into a bunch of empty boxes. Fucking doofus.

Latula grabs me by the shoulders and attempts to calm me down "Hey, calm down dude, it's all fine, no losses. It's totally chill. No biggie." It doesn't work entirely, but I stop yelling for enough time to let the black-shirt girl start to stir. She reaches around for something when I realize she's reaching for a pair of Pointy Red Anime shades a foot away from her groping hand. I lean over and pick them up gingerly, making sure not to disrupt any of the non-damaged cards next to her semi-writhing body, and then hand them to her. She somehow sits up without disturbing any further cards and puts the glasses on. As she puts them on I catch a glimpse of her eyes, they are oddly blank, is she blind?

"Sorry about your cards" Her voice is a bit crackly, but in a way that seems instead of dry. Her clothes are a bit dis-leveled but they don't look sloppy. Her shirt boasts a tiel Libra symbol, similar to the one that Latula wears all the time. She brushes away the cards underneath her and sits back on her haunches. Scooping up the broken cards in one coordinated motion I re-consider her being a blind chick.

"Here let me help" I try and be somewhat polite, I do work here. Customer service and all that shit. She did apologize (and she was kinda cute).

"It's fine." She slaps my hand away, more evidence against the blind idea. "Here, take your cards" she shoves the pile of 45 some-odd cards into my hands and gets up. She proceeds to leap over the cards, stumble a bit, then bear-hug Latula. "Hey sis!" Latula hugs her back.

"Who the fuck is this?" I ask Latula, my vocal cords croaky from yelling. After taking some time to think, I might have seen this chick at school, she looks about my age.

Latula looks surprised, and then answers wearyingly "This is my sister Terezi." This is news to me. I had no idea that Latula had a sister; she hadn't mentioned it before now.

An awkward silence falls over the room. Terezi is half-hugging, her bear hug semi-deteriorated Latula, Latula is standing there, and Tavros knocked out behind the counter.

"Alighty then. Let's clean up this fucking mess." I break the silence and move to clean up the hundred or so packs on the floor. Terezi and Latula tip-toe their way to various sides of the pile and start picking up the cards. We eventually get all the cards back into the boxes, and sit in silence for a few seconds. I break the silence, remembering that I have 20 someodd copies of BardQuest to pack. "Hey I got to get back to packing, so I'll talk to you assholes later"

I walk back to the storage room and keep packing Bard Quest's. I can hear Latula and Terezi visiting, and as I pack the last copy into the box I hear the door creaking shut, signaling Terezi's exit.

The time ticks away, and finally its time to pack up and head home. Tavros left around 4:00, and Latula left an hour after that. I'm the last to leave, and as I close the door I wonder if I'll see Terezi again; I hope I do.


End file.
